Sunday 19th.March

A We had an enjoyable day at Sovereign Hill yesterday, it is an amazing place really. We tried our luck panning for gold, but I had more luck when I was there 28 years ago. Whilst on our ride on the carriage pulled by four horses, the driver told me some interesting facts. They have a stable of 53 horses, about 20-25 are used each day. There are 300 people employed, although about 150 people work there each day. On top of this there are 250 volunteers who come and sit in the little houses dressed in period costume and act like they are still in the 1850’s, or shine shoes or many other roles. This explains the rather expensive entrance fees, is well worth it though. They used to travel to Melbourne by coach which took 8 hours (80kms) and three changes of horses. Hearing a fanfare in the main street we went to see what was happening, the long silver horn was being blown by a guy who would have to be 80 years old. He led the smallish crowd into the theatre and proceeded to put on the funniest magic show I have ever seen, it was definitely the highlight of my day. He could juggle, throw all sorts of things in the air and catch them on his nose, forehead or mouth, make things disappear and appear, his little dog did many tricks too. He had us laughing the whole way through. There was a small Chinese girl in the audience who kept on calling out to him, “Grandpa, Grandpa”. He said to us “It is a funny old world, she was born on the street outside a railway station in China. I am baby sitting her today as her Mum is studying for her Phd” Interesting……. The caravan park we are in is very peaceful, we have a big grassy area to ourselves and a nice wooden playground just near us as well. A guy was collecting the rubbish from the big green bins, he had made an ingenious contraption which would lift the bins up and tip them into his ute, sort of like the huge trucks in the city but an a small scale. We had a chat about it and he said that he had copied it. Yeah, when he was seven years old he was given a toy that was a man climbing a ladder and doing a somersault at the top, this is what he copied it from! It was a great work of engineering, all steel, springs and a winch. Jarra loved it!! He loves anything noisy really. Have been seeing some strange letter boxes so far on the trip and have decided to keep a record of them, made a start yesterday with a couple of good photos, will keep you posted….Ha!